Weeks ago, my brother had informed me that he was going to be kicked out of the house on a Saturday evening, so that his wife could host a ladies night.  He challenged me to plan something to do.  After some research and gathering some small parameters (location, cost, etc.) from my brother, I had narrowed our choices to a few events.  However, with time dwindling before our Saturday Guy’s Night, I still had yet to confirm my possible plans and in some cases, they had become too expensive to execute.  Enter Matt Nathanson; signer, songwriter, part-time stand-up comedian.  The night before my brother’s and mine “date”, I had the pleasure of taking in Mr. Nathanson’s show in Minneapolis.  After the show, Matt spent quite a bit of time to meet and take photos with several of his fans, myself included.  It was at this moment, that a light bulb went off.  I had always kept Matt’s Saturday night show in Iowa in the back of my mind, but it was sold out, and with tickets going for 3x the face value on the secondary markets, it was well out of the budget my brother and I had set up.  But what if I could get the two of us into the show?  And who better to ask than the artist himself?  Without hesitation, Matt said, “For sure.”  He simply had me give my information to his manager Paul and thanked me for the time and wished me good night.  Success!!!  Now, I am nobody important.  Simply a fan who had no reservations about asking one of his favorite artists for a favor.  Matt easily could have said, “Sorry, no can do,” and I would have completely understood.  But he didn’t.  Perhaps he saw an opportunity to help someone out.  Or the chance to build up some good karma.  Whatever his reason for saying yes, he made a wise choice, as I am here today, writing this post sharing my story about his good will.  Anyone who’s met Matt knows that he’s a really funny and witty guy.  And his current acoustic tour has allowed him to really let that part of him shine.  The two shows couldn’t have been any different, with drastically different venues, setlists, and antics (one would’ve thought the Prince cover would have happened Friday night in Minneapolis and not Saturday in Iowa).  I enjoyed myself both nights, having shared them with friends and family. And my brother was happy to have a night out of the ordinary “Let’s go to the bar.”  The mini road trip allowed us to rock out to some great driving tunes, take a nap in the middle of the night at a truck stop and realize “Hey, this isn’t that far away, we should do it again.”  Anyways, thank you Matt Nathanson (and Paul) for a great weekend.  You have truly made me an advocate for you and your music (as if I wasn’t one already).